1999-03-09 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The Chinatown Bill Lee knew as a boy was ruled by gangs. Guys were beaten to a pulp for looking at someone the wrong way. Conflicts were resolved by threats and violence.

Twenty-five years later, Lee says, not much has changed in the Chinese underworld. Only the faces are new, as more and more Asian youth are lured into the gang life.

In his forthcoming book, "Chinese Playground: A Memoir," the 44-year-old San Francisco native provides the first insider look into the lethal mix of youthful bravado, cultural maladjustment and turf warfare that culminated in the 1977 shootout at the Golden Dragon restaurant, one of the worst massacres in San Francisco history.

"I wanted to write this for the kids (today), so they can see how they're being recruited and exploited," Lee said.

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gangs. From peddling fireworks at age 7 to hustling in pool halls around The City, he grew up around kids involved in some kind of crime. While their mothers labored at factory jobs and their fathers lingered at gambling parlors, kids roamed the streets unchecked.

Although Lee tried to resist the violence, he couldn't resist the camaraderie of gang life.

Lee was a student majoring in psychology at S.F. State when he joined the Chung Ching Yee, also known as the Joe Boys. They offered him what his family didn't - acceptance and protection - and he considered them blood brothers.

"There was a part of me that was very self-destructive," he said. "Once I stepped over, everything else I was feeling, the pain . . . suddenly you feel strong and powerful. It's a facade, but you're in a new family; everyone feels important."

Lee describes his father as an alcoholic who was physically and emotionally abusive to his five children. Yet he was also one of the most respected men in Chinatown.

"He actually took me into the underworld," Lee said.

"Sitting there in the coffee shop (when I was a kid) with him and all his associates, the elders of the tongs, talking about business and what have you. I was kind of bored, but I'm sure a lot of that also sunk in, as far as how to resolve things."

His mother toiled long hours in a garment factory and had little time for the kids. Like many of his peers, Lee said, he was ashamed and resentful that she labored so hard for so little. Joining a gang was also a way to get what his parents couldn't provide - fast cars and easy money.

The hub of gang activity was the playground of the book's title. It was where Lee stashed his fireworks supply and where he learned the code of the streets.

In 1964, it was where a group of immigrant kids - teased and harassed by the U.S.-born Chinese kids - formed the Wah Ching, which would eventually become the most powerful gang in Chinatown.

Located on Sacramento Street in the heart of Chinatown, the Chinese playground still exists. To this day, control of the playground represents dominance, Lee says.

Just last summer, two teenage boys were arrested for a shooting spree there that wounded six teenagers. It was, according to Foley, the result of tension between two rival gang members.

An act of disrespect&lt;

A long-standing feud between the Joe Boys and the Wah Ching culminated in a Fourth of July shootout in Chinatown in 1977. What pushed the Joe Boys over the edge was not that some of their brothers were killed but that their grave sites were being vandalized, breaking an unwritten code of respecting the dead.

That act of disrespect, Lee writes, led to the infamous shooting at the Golden Dragon restaurant on Washington Street, in which five people were killed, including two tourists, and 11 injured. It was a wake-up call to The City's leaders and led to the formation of the police Gang Task Force.

Although the shootings were committed by three of his blood brothers, Lee said, he had no advance knowledge of it. Still, the police had a file on him, and he was the first person called in for questioning. Later, he was almost killed because gang members mistakenly thought he was a police informant.

The Joe Boys disbanded, and Lee eventually went into a career in high-tech recruiting, which was an oddly good fit with his background.

"I took my dark side and carried it into Silicon Valley," he said. "It was a new type of gang, the high-tech gang, just as brutal. It was take-no-prisoners and win-at-any-cost."

After 15 brutal years in the corporate trenches, Lee has forced himself to give up all competitive activities - not only high-tech recruiting but tennis and all sports - because they brought out his dark side.

He is now living off savings and focusing on promoting his book, which he hopes will benefit not only teens, but also teachers, parents and police.

Lee said gambling probably is the worst problem in Chinatown today, as well as loan sharks and the violence they breed. But he believes the Gang Task Force is doing a good job of tracking the problem.

Anything for money&lt;

Foley, who was an investigator on the Golden Dragon massacre, said gangs were into anything in which they could make money, from immigrant smuggling to prostitution.

"Then it goes down the ladder where the younger kids earn their reputation in fights, or maybe a robbery or breaking into cars," he said.

He said Asian gangs have spread beyond Chinatown, to the Richmond and Sunset districts and throughout the region.

A couple of years ago, Lee came into direct contact with the police in an unexpected way - when his own teenage son joined a gang.

"I never thought I'd actually turn to them looking for help," Lee said.

It was then that Lee revealed his past to his son. The high school sophomore was shocked.

"Suddenly, he thought I was hiding things from him," Lee said. "He looked at it like, "Holy smoke, my father and my grandfather were a bunch of original gangsters.' I think it damaged him more than anything."

Lee was able to get his son an after-school job and get him on right track, but he sees plenty of Asian teens who can't resist the incredible pressures of the dai los.

To counter that image, they try to be macho, Lee said, which is also tough because Asian kids often are smaller.

"Suddenly you're either a nerd or you're a gangbanger in high school," he said. "You can't be both."

Lee is publishing his book himself so he can retain control. It will be available at the end of March through Rhapsody Press and local independent booksellers, including Green Apple Bookstore in San Francisco and Eastwind Books in Berkeley and San Francisco. &lt;